6 Responsible Travel Blogs to Follow This Year

Travel bloggers play an important role in feeding our wanderlust. They educate us about the good’s, the bad’s and the ugly’s of the places we want to visit. They give us ideas and insights into the places we want to go and feed us with useful information that fits nicely into a five-hundred word article on a screen in the palm of our hands.

The six travel bloggers featured in this article have found a way to do these things for us, and also share with us another important topic – Responsible Travel. They have taken their love for travel, and their passion for our earth and everything in it, and shared with us sustainable ways that we can reduce our footprints wherever we step in this world. Why is this important? Because sustainability is the ability to continue a defined behaviour indefinitely and if we want to continue to travel this wonderful world we need to find sustainable ways to do so.

Here are six responsible travel blogs to follow this year, and advice from the bloggers behind them, that will educate you, inspire you, and encourage you to acknowledge the kinds of footprints you will leave on your next adventure abroad.

“As an environmental management professional, I often face a pretty significant dilemma about travel – I am passionate about travel and want to explore the world, but it is really not good for my carbon footprint. Travel can help us to become good global citizens, aware of global processes and environmental issues, sensitive to other belief systems, and able to contribute positively to environments, communities and cultures beyond our own. But while travelling you can also witness problems such as environmental damage, waste problems, sex tourism, animal cruelty, and overuse of resources like water. So, I set out to find ways to enjoy environmentally responsible travel, or ‘One Planet Travel’ as I like to call it. After all, we only have the one planet, so we need to protect it. I invite readers to join the journey with Amanda’s Wanderlust as I try to keep my travel sustainable!” – Amanda from Amanda’s Wanderlust

“Travelling responsibly is really about minimising the negative impacts of tourism and having a positive input where possible. Mass tourism — that’s package holidays, resort complexes, large tours, frequent air travel — is not a sustainable way to travel. It has a detrimental impact on the environment and wildlife, and often on local people and cultures. By making responsible travel decisions like flying less often, using green forms of transport when possible, choosing to stay in locally-run guesthouses and eat in locally-run restaurants, carrying reusable water bottles and bags to save on plastic waste are just a few of the ways to minimise the negative impacts of travel and make a positive one.

Many people ask me whether air travel can ever be sustainable? The question if often posed as to whether it’s even possible sustainable travel blogger when air travel is something that travellers tend to do more often. Air travel isn’t good for the environment, but there are lots of ways you can lessen and offset the impacts. For example, packing as light as possible and only travelling with hand luggage, choosing an budget airline and sitting in economy class. Take fewer flights and travel for longer too. I love slow travel and always encourage people to travel over longer periods of time and fly less frequently when they can.” – Charlie from Charlie on Travel

“Responsible travel is important to us because we believe it benefits everyone; the world, its people, its ecology and its wildlife – what’s not to love? We founded Backpacker Bible in 2014 off the back of a long travel experience that made us acutely aware of how tourism can act as a great force of good but can also have terrible consequences for the people, wildlife and environment of the places we visit. Put simply, by travelling responsibly we can make it more good than bad.

At Backpacker Bible we promote a necessary shift in the ideals of modern travel. We stand as a movement where the philosophy is underpinned by a deep respect for the earth, its wildlife and ecology, the local cultures and communities visited as well as the travellers exploring and wishing to gain the very best out of their experiences.” – Charlie from Backpacker Bible

“I strongly believe in the value of life. Any life. I don’t really see the difference between a chicken, a tree, a human and an ant. They’re all one and the same to me. That’s why I do my best in my travels and everyday life to be ‘green’. For me, being green means trying to preserve the earth and the life on it. When you travel, it means respecting the culture and protecting the environment of the place you’re in. It’s those little habits that we don’t even realize we have that need changing. Like not wearing leather shoes, bringing your own towel, carpooling; I believe that, if we all care and love a little, we can change things. And even if all I do in the end is save one member of an endangered species or help one local make their living, it’ll all have been worthwhile.” – Cora from The Path She Took

“For me, travel isn’t just about lounging on beaches in 5-star resorts, or snapping a selfie in front of a monument. Travel is experiencing the things about a place that make it unique, like culture, food, and nature. If we don’t take the time to think about how we travel, we can cause a lot of damage to beautiful things. As much as doing awesome things and seeing the world is my top priority, I believe it’s wrong for adventures to come at the expense of the places we visit. For example, I would LOVE to ride an elephant, but it’s not good for them, so I won’t ever do it. Responsible travel is a way to follow our wanderlusty, adventurous spirits around the globe, while trying to make it a better place for everyone and everything to live in. Win-win!” – Tara from Hippie Hits The Road

“For us, responsible travel is more than just a style of travel, it’s our main traveling philosophy. As a traveling community we have the power to shape the world that we explore, by choosing destinations, tour operators and experiences that prioritize the care and protection of local culture, as well as the environment and animal populations. Having worked with community projects all around the developing world, we have seen first hand the impacts that positive and sustainable tourism can have on communities in need. Not just for the people, but also the animals and their environment. It is our goal at Don’t Forget To Move to help make those choices easier for any traveller looking to make a positive impact on the world.” – Christine and Jules from Don’t Forget To Move

Thank you to all the bloggers in this article for sharing their stories about why responsible travel is so important to them. Be sure to follow their blogs or social media accounts to keep up to date with ways that you can travel responsibly throughout the world.

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About Bianca

The Altruistic Traveller

I am a freelance journalist & blogger specialising in stories about responsible tourism, fair trade and community development, with the aim to promote ethical values and give a voice to organisations who are making the world a better place.